Praying with Preteens and Teenagers

When our children begin to want to pray entirely on their own, without us around at all, we should make sure that we're still available to them and that we help them structure their prayer time, perhaps scheduling that time to mesh with their bedtime. For example, if we want them in bed with the lights out at nine and they're currently spending twenty minutes reading their Bible and saying their prayers, they'll need to start the process by eight-forty.

It's expecially important that we continue to talk to our older children about our own prayer life and the things that we're praying about. That openness will encourage them to talk to us about how things are going with their prayers. We need to look for every opportunity to continue the prayer training process so that it doesn't stagnate. With that goal in mind, we should continue to help our children identify and celebrate God's answers to their prayers.

All the way through this training process we should let our children know things that they can pray about for us and things that concern our family. This will help them know that their prayers are real, that their prayers make a difference, and that we value their prayers. We need to remember to thank our children for their prayers and tell them how things turned out when the answer comes.

The foundation of prayer is a relationship with God. Helping our children learn about and grow in prayer isn't like teaching them math or science, we're helping them get to know and learn to trust God. Relationships can't be forced; they need to grow and develop over time. If we relax and enjoy the process, so will our children.